We are in August, with the 5th just around the corner.
Two years ago, July-August in Bangladesh was in the headlines all over the world.
A public uprising, a brutal crackdown, young lives lost, countless men and women injured and, finally, the fall of a regime that had come via a democratic process but over time became the biggest suppressor of values that it had initially championed.
Bangladesh has had two mass uprisings, one in December 1990 when the Ershad government stepped down in the face of widespread protest, and, then in 2024, when the AL government not only fell but also fled the country.
Two events – similar in some areas, dissimilar in a few.
Both movements, triggered by students participated and endorsed by the masses, brought down systems which had become rotten, yet in the 1990 one, the party or the members of the government which stepped down did not skedaddle.
They remained, faced the law plus the consequences.
Whereas the fall of the AL government on 5 August was a toppling which triggered an almost total flight of its senior members.
Two years later, looking back at July-Aug 2024, the opinion, analysis and the observations vary.
At a recent seminar, the view expressed was that although the July Uprising was successful, the revolution wasn’t.
Did the revolution fail to deliver?
Well, it depends how one wants to analyse the history of Bangladesh starting from July 2024 till Aug 2026.
Naturally, when a revolution begins to take shape, it is based on ideals that are often Quixotic.
The dream is to change everything overnight: root out corruption in one go, ensure total transparency and accountability and extirpate discrimination, prejudice and dogmatism.
That’s the orthodox revolution premise – it has been the same throughout the ages.
Turn shambles into Shang Ri La!
During the July-Aug movement, we heard a lot of rhetoric about a utilitarian society, with many young July-August warriors articulating a complete overhaul of a system which had become afflicted with cronyism.
For a revolution time narrative, that was acceptable, but post revolution period is always a time when revolutionary fervour ought to give way to realpolitik.
At the seminar, disappointment was aired as to why students of private universities, who had also taken part in the movement, were not included in the newly formed political parties.
The question: did the private university students want to get involved in such political activities?
Maybe, public university students who were on the roads should be allowed to speak out on the matter.
From what I gather, they came out on the streets to express solidarity with fellow students of public institutions and, once the AL government fell and the interim government was in place, went back to their academic life.
One may be wrong but let’s hear it from them if they had any desire to be part of a political entity which came into prominence after the July-Aug uprising.
Another feeling often aired is that although many working-class people came together during the mass uprising, there wasn’t sufficient effort later to unite them under a banner.
This outlook is a little puzzling because people from all walks of life: masons, teachers, grocery store owners, rickshaw drivers, sports persons, tea stall workers came out on the road because their civic/moral senses were outraged at the way the then government was using violence to kill/intimidate students.
The same happened in 1990!
The people that came out on the streets included a large number of housewives and the elderly who joined in the demand for the end to an autocratic regime.
However, they never wanted to be part of any political entity.
One explanation behind the hope of seeing general people unite under a banner may have stemmed from the rallying cry during the July-Aug movement which advocated a very socialist doctrine that would include everyone in reforms and governance.
After the revolution, those who wanted to be in politics did exactly that, others, on their own volition, went back to their respective professions – that’s exactly what happened in many other historic revolutions.
One needs to look at the positives and not just harp on about what could have been and how a revolution failed to live up to expectations.
In a broader picture, we had credible elections after several questionable ones, the media has been fairly free in the last two years, crony journalism may not have disappeared totally but it’s not as flagrant as it used to be, the BNP government now in power has come through a free, non-partisan elections endorsed by international election observes while there are genuine efforts to tackle profligacy, malfeasance, graft within public institutes.
The most consequential attainment of the revolution of July-Aug 2024 is a re-invigorated sense of nationalism.
In that feeling, there is pride of being part of a new Bangladesh which maintains her dignity in domestic and international affairs.
Lest we forget, geo-politics is a very complex issue, with countless imponderables, therefore, text-book black and white definitions often may appear impractical.
The biggest success of the July-Aug uprising is that in the following period, the country, as predicted by many denigrators, did not slip into anarchy and mayhem.
Systems were thoroughly protected, chain of command maintained with transitions happening smoothly.
Yes, there were and are imperfections but take solace from the fact, no country is perfect and no government without flaws and shortcomings.
The revolution did not give us Utopia but in the end, we are not in Dystopia either!
